


Shattering at the Seams

by Hufflepuff44



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Daichi is a good (boy)friend, Eventual Romance, I am still sleep deprived, I really should be working on my other projects, Little bit of a panic attack, M/M, Protective Karasuno Volleyball Club, Scared Suga, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Slight hate speech, Someone is putting chemicals in the water that are turning the frogs gay, Sugamama, The whole team is gay for each other, by frogs I mean Karasuno Volleyball Club, dadchi, its a baby one, no beta we die like men, no one asked for this, poor suga, unsupportive parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-22 12:16:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22416061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hufflepuff44/pseuds/Hufflepuff44
Summary: Sugawara was a normal high school student, until the night he stubbed his toe. With mutants being considered a threat to humanity, he can't let anyone know about his secret. It could cost him his life. Too bad his best friend, Daichi, was too good at reading Suga. How can he hide himself from the only person who could see though all his defenses? What if he didn't want to?
Relationships: Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi
Comments: 11
Kudos: 52





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I'm taking a baby break from my other story (Wednesday, a My Hero Academia fic) so that it still feels fresh when I go back to it! I figured that I'd write this so that I could swap back and forth between each one (because I hate myself). No one asked for this, but I'm a sucker for mutant AU's and Suga is my baby boi who doesn't get enough attention. I literally have no idea where this is going, but its still fun to write anyways. I actually don't think many people will ready this. It's kinda a niche category. Oh well! If you somehow stumbled upon this, I hope you like it :)

He never asked for powers. Honestly, who would? The world was a cold and unaccepting place. Anyone different was to be feared. To be shunned. Different meant change. No one liked change. Sure sometimes people found it in their hearts to accept small differences in their day to day lives. A new neighbor? No problem! A different route to work due to construction. Not ideal but not the end of the world. A new office building. I guess that could work. People developing unnatural powers? A threat to humanity. 

No one even tried to get to the bottom of what had happened. The second people began presenting their powers, they were thrown into facilities to evaluate and monitor the threat at a safe distance. They thought they could stop the development of such mutations if they locked away the ones who were already “infected”. Quarantine the problem. Keep the rest of the batch free from exposure. It hadn’t worked. Why would it have? There was no logical reason to believe that what was going on was an illness. Of course, there was no telling what the cause could be. No one gave it a chance to be studied. The government hastily declared it bioterrorism against the country of Japan. Many people called bullshit on that, and rightfully so. What country would want to weaken another country by giving its people superhuman abilities? Nothing added up. Of course, maybe they knew that Japan would react in such a manner. That its people would be sent into a frenzy. That the government would put all of its resources on containment and raids to capture the infected. 

To Koushi Sugawara it didn’t matter how it started, or the cause. All that mattered to him was keeping it a secret. Staying cautious and on his toes at all times. Keeping up with the news. Listening to police radios reporting mutants to make sure no one got too close. Waiting for his name to be spoken, god forbid he be found out and sold out. There was no such thing as too cautious in Suga’s book. 

So far he was lucky. When his powers first presented, his parents were out on a business trip, and being an only child, the house was empty. It was night and the blinds were drawn. No eyewitnesses. No one but Koushi and his thoughts. He hadn’t expected his big toe to shatter into little glass shards when he stubbed his toe on the edge of the refrigerator, and he certainly didn’t expect the shards to reform into his appendage seconds after. To say he was panicked would be a severe understatement. It turns out Koushi hadn’t experienced true fear until that moment. His heart stopped in sync with his stomach plunging into his feet. Into the toe that just shattered into glass. It had to be his vision messing with him. Yup. That was the only plausible explanation. If he were to do it again, surely his toe would still be intact and for sure not shattered glass laying on the kitchen floor. No way. With a painful breath held in his lungs, he slammed his toe into the edge of the fridge again. 

For the second time that night, his heart refused to beat. He stumbled backward into the table, knocking over a chair. The shattered glass remained where it was. Koushi’s chest heaved, his lungs burning from lack of oxygen. He looked at his foot right foot, which now only possessed four toes. This could not be happening. Maybe he was drugged. LSD gave people crazy visions, right? Maybe he accidentally did LSD. Made perfect sense, except for the fact that it didn’t. Where would he even get drugs from? He was a good kid. He was a good kid up until he made the mistake of stubbing his toe. 

Koushi sunk to the ground, his eyes wide open in disbelief. Clutching his hair in his shaking hands, he stared at the fragments on the floor. They caught the overhead light and reflected it up onto the ceiling, creating quite beautiful mirages on the plaster. Had the source been anything but his body, he would’ve believed that the glass was quite stunning. Since it was though, it was disgusting. It was sick. He was a sick kid. Tears leaked out of his eyes as he drew his knees up to his chest and buried his face into his palms. This couldn’t be happening, and yet here he was. Curled on the kitchen floor, tears soaking his face, and missing one toe. He let himself cry for a little bit. It was the only natural part about this whole situation. 

After thirty minutes, he snapped his head up. No one could find out. If he kept it his dirty little secret he’d be fine. There would be nothing to worry about. Things didn’t have to change. Determined, whipped the old tears off his cheeks. First thing first, he needed to get his toe back on his foot. The first time, the glass shards automatically reformed within seconds of shattering. What had been different between the two occasions? Koushi had no clue. Maybe he should wish his toe back. He closed his eyes and prayed to whatever god was listening. Nothing happened. Maybe if he thought really hard. So he did, with veins popping in his forehead. Still only nine toes in the house. Ok. What to do next? Imagine his toe reassembling? He couldn’t even begin to picture that. There were so many shards and he had no idea how to complete the puzzle. Maybe he was too tired to do it now? He did feel rather drained. 

Koushi hobbled over to the dustpan and broom hanging in the closet and swept up his toe before waddling to his bed. He’d keep it in his room overnight just in case his toe miraculously decided to rejoin its friends residing on his right foot. 

Luckily when Koushi woke up to the harsh buzz from his alarm clock, his toe was happily settled on his right foot, right where it belonged. It was given a little test wiggle before its owner crawled out of bed to get ready for morning practice. 

Morning practice. That’s right. He played volleyball. A sport that required him to smash his arms into a leather ball. Smash his arms. Shatter his arms. He couldn’t play. Of course, he didn’t know for sure how his powers worked. For all he knew the only thing that could shatter was his right big toe, but he couldn’t take any chances. Koushi heard of what happened to people with powers. Nothing good. Nothing he wanted to go through. Maybe he would ditch. Daichi would be on his case though. Daichi was always on his case. He loved the guy and the attention, but right now Koushi would’ve preferred his best friend didn’t know he existed. Call out sick? Then it would make no sense for him to be at school, and he was not missing. No way. His parents would have his head. Fake an injury? Could work. Still risky though. It was the best bet he had though. What kind of injury to fake though? Best to stay away from ankles and knees, it would be too hard to fake for the entire day. He should stick with his hands. A sprain. No, those haven’t ever stopped him before even though they should’ve. Burnt hands. Those could get him somewhere. Should he actually burn them, for authenticity? That way in case anyone were to doubt him, he could show them proof? No, that was completely absurd. But what would he rather, burnt hands for a little bit, or for everyone to find out his secret? Burnt hands it was. 

Sighing, he turned the oven on and slid a metal cooking tray inside. What was he doing? None of this was necessary. His finger hovered over the off button on the oven. He dropped his hand. In a way, he almost deserved to be punished. He was a freak, something horrible, something sick, a threat to Japan. It’s what he deserved. 

While the pan heated up, Koushi grabbed some breakfast and got dressed in his uniform. No sense in changing into gym clothes if he couldn’t play. He draped his school jacket across his packed bag and rolled up the sleeves of his button-up shirt. On his way back to the kitchen, he grabbed the first aid kit and set it down on the dining table. Time to check his pan. It was probably hot enough. Not ready to injure himself yet, Koushi grabbed oven mitts and retrieved the tray and placed in on the stove on top. He flicked the oven mitt aside and shook his hands out. Of course, he was nervous. No one wanted to burn their hands on purpose. It had to be done though, and if he wanted any chance of patching himself up, he’d better do it now. 

His lungs sucked in a deep breath and held it. His brain empty, he thrust both his palms onto the hot metal. Instantly his eyes shot open in shock and pain. Yet he held his hands there for a few seconds longer. Once the pain became completely unbearable, he yanked them away, scurried over to the sink and ran them under cool water. Tears pricked at his eyes as he looked at his hands. They were an angry red. Parts of them swollen and slightly blistered. It was probably a second-degree burn, which was more than he intended to give himself, but that didn’t matter now. It was done and he only had fifteen minutes to bandage them up before he had to meet Daichi and Asahi on the corner. 

He carefully wrapped his palms and fingers as gently as his time limit allowed. They hurt like a bitch, but Koushi would just have to deal with it. He deserved it. Koushi grabbed his bag and ran out the door before carefully putting on his shoes. Tying them seemed to be too big of a challenge, so he painfully tucked them into his shoes using his pinky fingers, as they were the least burnt part of his hands. 

With no time to waste, he began running over to the meeting spot, taking a shortcut through the park near his house. Within fifteen minutes he arrived at the corner. It seemed as he was the last one there, which hadn’t happened since his second year of high school. 

“Ah, there is!” Daichi called out, giving a big wave. “It’s about time! What kept you so long? You’re usually on time.” His eyes trailed to Koushi’s shoddily bandaged hands. “Suga, what happened?” His voice filled to the brim with concern. The taller male reached his hands out to take Koushi’s before deciding against it. 

Suga chuckled lightly, pain seeping through his voice despite his best efforts. “I burnt my hands a little this morning making breakfast. I don’t think I’ll be able to play for a bit.” He threw in a soft smile for good measure, hoping to lighten the mood and take away some of the concern from his friends, one of which looked panicked enough to pass out. “Asahi, I’m fine! A little burn never killed anyone!” 

“They have though. Burns have definitely killed people before.” Asahi muttered. “Are you sure you’re ok?” 

“Completely fine. In a little bit of pain, but other than that, I couldn’t be better!” That was one of the biggest lies he’s ever told. 

The three of them set off to the gym, resuming normal chatter. Everything was fine. No one knew. They were too concerned about his hands to notice anything. Besides, nothing even happened. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard. 

Famous last words. 

The gym was quiet when the three third years arrived. Of course, they were the first ones to get there, as most of the club duties concerning setting up fell upon their shoulders. They only had around twenty minutes top to get the net out, fill the water coolers, and retrieve the balls from the closet before Hinata and Kageyama arrived. Those two were almost too eager for their own good. 

The third years began getting to work. 

“Suga, how about you get the balls out? Can you handle that?” 

“It wouldn’t be a problem.” Suga pushed the closet open with his bicep and stomped the peg down so that the door wouldn’t close, before rolling the cart out using the underbelly of his wrists to guide it. He was doing good so far. He seemed chill as a cucumber. He could do this. It’s not like he was a clumsy person. He was actually quite the opposite. He inherited a lot of his mother’s traits, one of them being her gracefulness. He often heard that everything he did was delicate, flowing, almost pretty. He usually found it to be quite annoying, but now he was thanking his lucky stars. 

As Asahi and Daichi fumbled with the net, Suga pushed the water coolers out of the closet with his thighs and feet. 

“You better not be filling those up, Suga.” Daichi called, not even looking up from the task in front of him. His voice was stern, almost daring Suga. 

“I can do it.” Suga responded, still lightly kicking the coolers over to the training room. 

“Don’t you dare.” 

Suga rolled his brown eyes, fully aware that his friend wasn’t looking his way. “I can do it. Don’t make me feel useless.” He teased. 

The doors burst open. Hinata and Kageyama flew in chaotically, bumping into and stumbling over each other, arguing as usual. 

“Hinata, Kageyama, fill the water coolers.” Daichi ordered. 

The two snapped out of their argument and raced over to the water coolers Suga was kicking across the gym. 

“Morning Suga!” The words were called over the red head’s shoulder as he ran to the trainer’s office. 

“Daichi, I could’ve done that.” 

“I bet you could’ve.” Asahi and the captain finished with the net, stepping back to check their work. Satisfied Daichi turned towards Suga. “There are more pressing issues at hand, like that patchwork on your hands.” Suga glanced towards his hands, noticing that the bandages were unraveling in places. It was likely that the ointment was the only thing holding the job together. “If I weren’t smart, I would’ve thought a toddler played doctor on you in the dark. You should really fix that.” 

“Haha. Very funny. I was short on time, ok?” Red flesh was peeping out of the white bandages. Suga’s tone sobered up fast. “I should, shouldn’t I?” 

“Practice doesn’t start for another fifteen minutes. Need some help?” 

As much as Suga wanted to deny, he couldn’t move his fingers all too well at the moment. “Sure,” He replied. 

Daichi jogged over to the closet and pulled the first aid kit out while Suga straddled a bench, gingerly unraveling his hands. They looked almost worse now than they did when he first burnt them. The welts were angry and red, and the swelling had only gotten worse. 

“Shit, Suga.” Daichi breathed out. “What happened?” The captain opened the kit and began taking out the needed supplies. 

“I told you, breakfast mishap.” 

“Looks like you pulled something out of the oven with no mitt.” It was a joke. It was too close to the truth. 

Suga looked away, remaining silent. 

“You aren’t serious.” Daichi paused his work. When Suga didn’t stay anything he continued. “Oh my god. Suga. What has gotten into you?” 

“I was tired and I wasn’t paying attention. It happens to the best of us.” 

Daichi shook his head in disbelief. “No, it doesn’t. Look, I’ve noticed that you’ve been getting more and more reckless lately. Caring about yourself less.” 

“What?” 

“Don’t play dumb.” He finished with the bandages and returned them to the kit. “I know you haven’t been sleeping well, I can see it under your eyes. You eat less than before. Your dives are the most reckless I’ve ever seen them. And now this? Somethings up.” 

Suga was officially lost. He had no idea what Daichi was on about. Sure he was staying up later, school was intense for third years. And maybe he had been eating less, but that was only because he was too busy to eat. Had his dives been getting reckless? He didn’t think so. Maybe sitting on the sidelines was affecting his technique. 

“What are you implying?” He said defensively. 

The captain shook his head and sighed. “Look, I don’t like pinning labels on people, but are you depressed?” 

“Wha- no!” 

“Are you trying to hurt yourself?” 

“Where did you even get that idea?” 

“You’re acting off today. You seem tenser and on edge. Somethings wrong. You should just tell me what’s up. I’m going to get to the bottom of it anyway.” 

Suga blinked a few times. What had just happened? The whiplash he’d gotten from that conversation was something in itself. Was he acting off this morning? No way. He tried to hard to seem normal. Leave it to Daichi to see through all his defenses. Sometimes Suga felt positive that Daichi knew him better than he knew himself. 

“Woah there, calm down. Nothing is wrong. I’m fine. I appreciate the concern, I really do, but I’m ok! Maybe a little sleepier than usual, but other than that I’m completely normal.” What a lie. He was the opposite of normal. As of last night, he was a freak. He watched as Daichi eyed him once more before standing up. 

In a softer tone, Daichi added “You know you can talk to me about anything, and I mean anything. That’s not the team captain talking, it's your best friend. I won’t judge, you got that?” 

Suga nodded. “I know.” He said quietly. If only Daichi knew how much of a lie that was. The second his best friend figured out was Suga was, he’d turn his back. Recant their friendship and alert the authorities. His kind wasn’t welcomed and Suga acknowledged that. He understood. While it didn’t seem entirely fair, that’s just how things went. He was disgusting and a danger to be around, he wasn’t sure how he could be a danger yet, but he was sure he was one. He’d honestly be upset if Daichi didn’t reject him. Suga couldn’t risk putting him in danger and he knew he wouldn’t have the strength to leave the dark-haired male on his own accord. 

“Yeah, of course.” His tone was too distant. Too shaken. He felt a gentle squeeze on his shoulder. 

“I care about you. You know that, right?” 

“Yeah.” Still too distant. Far too shaken. Daichi didn’t look convinced. Not at all. Suga would just have to try harder.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 2! Quite uneventful if I do say so myself, but hopefully things will pick up soon!
> 
> Also I just wanted to remind everyone to be safe! With recent events I hope everyone is taking care of themselves and others! If we all do our part, we can help the people who can't fight off the COVID-19!

Of course Coach Ukai hadn’t been too pleased about Suga’s scalded palms, giving him an ear full about how he needed to take better care of himself and to start paying attention to what he was doing via phone call. There were worse things in the world than having his coach angry with him though. Besides, it’s not like Ukai was actually mad. It was clear that Suga wasn’t needed around much. He was only good for when the team needed to run spike drills or when they played a quick practice game. He could probably be considered more of a glorified babysitter than a volleyball player. He just wasn’t needed, and he had accepted that long ago. At first it had been hard when Kageyama had replaced him. It wasn’t fair. Suga knew all of his teammates better than some fresh-faced first year ever would, but that didn’t matter. Kageyama’s raw talent and game sense vastly outweighed what little Suga had going for him. The third year couldn’t find it in himself to be mad at Kageyama though. The kid was gifted, it wasn’t his fault that his upperclassman was a shoddy at the craft. Why get upset over damaged goods?

Luckily, morning practice passed fairly quickly. Suga stood up to help his team clean up but stopped abruptly as soon as Daichi shot him a warning glare. Getting the message loud and clear, he sat back down on the bench, grumbling slightly. He hated sitting around while the rest of his teammates carried his slack. He already felt useless enough. Sighing, he leaned his head against the wall behind him and slid his eyes closed. He had some major decision making to do. The way he saw it, he had two options.

1) Quit the volleyball team.

Pros would be that the team probably wouldn’t notice that he even left, he’d be out of the way of his teammates, he could focus more on schoolwork (not that he really needed to. His grades were well above average, but it could never hurt to put a few more hours into studying.), he could think about his university options more seriously, he would be protecting himself from anyone discovering his dirty little secret (he couldn’t have burnt hands forever), and he didn’t see volleyball being a part of his future after high school, so why not stop now and get used to it earlier? It was a pretty good list.

Now time for cons. The only real one Suga could think of was losing his friends. The team was like a second family to him, and with his folks always on business trips, Suga had no idea how’d he cope with the loneliness without them. As much as Suga hated to admit it, he needed his team even if they didn’t need him. Sure he had a few acquaintances outside of volleyball, but they didn’t know the real Koushi Sugawara like his team did. They didn’t know that he sneezed every time he stepped into the sunlight (even after hours of research, neither Daichi, Asahi, nor Suga could find a solid explanation for the phenomena). They didn’t know that his right foot cracked a little bit with every step he took. They had no idea that he got lightheaded from laughing. Or that his favorite animals were ferrets, or that he was afraid of the ocean, or that he talks to himself much more often than any normal person does, or even that he was actually a pretty good singer. They knew nothing. They knew polite Sugawara who would never hurt a fly. The one who never cursed in his life. The one who was perfect. The Sugawara his parents molded him to be. He couldn’t lose the only people who could really see him.

2) Get a grasp over his powers and get better at volleyball so he wasn’t dead weight.

While there weren’t as many pros as there were in potion one, these held more of an impact. If he went with option two he wouldn’t have to treat himself like a porcelain doll, he could feel better about himself, and he would feel safer.

Cons would be that he had no idea how his powers worked (what if he shattered and couldn’t put himself back together again, or what if he somehow shattered his entire body and died? Risky.), he had a bigger chance of being discovered if he actively played around with his powers rather than flat out ignored them, he didn’t even know if he could ever play volleyball again, getting better takes a while and he didn’t have much time, being a third year and all.

Suga was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Neither option was ideal. Of course he had to be a mutant. What had he done in a pervious life that would screw him over so badly? It wasn’t fair. Nothing was fair. He felt guilty for complaining. Suga had a pretty good life. He was fairly wealthy as both of his parents were successful lawyers, he was able bodied, he had good friends, he had a roof over his head and food to eat. There were people who had it way worse than he did. He was just being a crybaby. He had to get over himself.

“Suga? You ok?” Daichi. He finished with the net already. How long had Suga been thinking.

He opened his eyes and pushed his head and back off the wall, sitting up straighter on the bench. Daichi stood in front of him with his hands on his hips, slightly sweaty from the morning activities. Suga couldn’t help but to notice how his white t-shirt clung to his body with perspiration. “I’m fine. Just thinking.” He stood up to walk to the club room with the tanner male.

“About what?”

Suga couldn’t tell him what he was really thinking about. Not even about the volleyball stuff. If Daichi knew he even entertained the idea of quitting the team, he would be extremely upset. He couldn’t ruin Daichi’s day. “School mostly.”

“Hm, I had no idea school could make you so constipated.”

“Daichi!” Suga screeched as he jabbed his elbow into the taller male’s side. “Don’t be so vulgar!”

Daichi barked that laugh that made Suga’s keens feel weak and his heart flutter in his chest. “Alright. Conflicted. You looked conflicted.” His smile faded as he eyed Suga suspiciously.

“I wasn’t conflicted.”

Daichi sighed, annoyance seeping through the breath. “Your face said otherwise.”

“I was just thinking about all the work I have to do. It’s a lot you know. Kinda hard to keep up with it all sometimes.” Suga chuckled weakly. It wasn’t a lie. Between his advanced placement classes, his chores, and volleyball, he had a lot on his plate.

Daichi pushed open the club room door. “You sure that’s it?” he questioned as he opened his bag on the self and peeled off his t-shirt to put his button up on. Suga adverted his eyes as his cheeks burned slightly, giving his friend privacy to change as he sat on a discarded chair.

He rolled his eyes. “Yes Daichi. That’s all. You can’t honestly tell me that you aren’t at least a little bit stressed about your classes.”

“Sure I am.” Daichi was pulling on his dress pants, hopping slightly to avoid toppling over into the shelves. “But we both know that you stress a little too much.”

That was true. It wasn’t uncommon for Suga to overly stress to the point that he made himself physically sick. “That’s fair I guess.”

At this point, Daichi was fully dressed. He grabbed his bag as Suga stood up and walked to the club room exit. The two friends strolled in silence to the school’s main building. The silence wasn’t uncomfortable, which is one of the things Suga liked about the dynamic between themselves. They didn’t need to talk to enjoy one another’s presence. Just being together was enough for them.

Before they entered the building, Daichi turned to Suga, causing him to halt abruptly to keep from slamming into his friend’s chest. Suga opened his mouth to scold him but Daichi beat him to it. “You’d tell me if anything was wrong, right?” Daichi’s brown eyes seeped with concern, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. If Suga didn’t know any better he’d say that he looked almost afraid. Suga’s words evaded him. He opened his mouth to answer, but the syllables were trapped in his throat. Daichi wasn’t one to show weakness. Sure he felt more comfortable displaying his soft side around Suga, but he tended to keep a tight reign on his emotions. Seeing the taller male so expressive sent chills down Suga’s spine. He did that. Daichi was feeling that way because of the way Suga was acting. It was his fault. “You can come to me with anything. I won’t laugh or judge you. You know that.”

“I-I know. Thanks, Daichi.” The gray haired teenager put on a fake soft smile. “I’m really ok though. Nothing I can’t handle myself.” He side stepped Daichi and held the door open for his teammate, being careful of his injured hands.

“I’m worried about you.”

Suga sighed. “I know. You don’t need to.”

A slight pause. “I think I do.” The words were uttered so quietly Suga wasn’t sure he heard them correctly at first. Before he had a chance to reassure Daichi, he was interrupted. “We’ll talk more at lunch, ok? You, me, and Asahi. He’s worried about you too.”

Suga nodded and bid Daichi a farewell as they went their separate ways. He felt bad for worrying his friends. He wanted to tell them what was wrong but doing that was a death sentence. Of course Daichi and Asahi weren’t ones to discriminate against anyone, but mutants were a whole different subject. There was being different and then there was being a mutant. The two weren’t even in the same ballpark. One was self-expression, the other was dangerous. It was better to just keep his mouth shut. Telling them wasn’t worth the risks that accompanied it. Besides even if they knew and accepted him, which was a fat chance on its own, he could be putting them in danger. Who knows what kind of trouble that knowledge would get them into. It wasn’t totally uncommon that people were interrogated for information on mutants. Withholding any information could land you in jail for a good two years. No way would Suga pass that burden onto his friends. They less they knew the better.

His guilt was abruptly replaced with panic when Suga saw the state of the hallway. There were students everywhere. He vaguely remembered an announcement concerning repairs to another wing in the school. The crowd was most likely due to the relocated classes. Unfortunately, Suga’s classroom was on the other side of the mob, and the only way to get to it on time was to wade through the masses. He swallowed thickly, trying to maintain an appearance of nonchalance while visions of the worst case scenario played in his head. What if a student elbowed him and he shattered, or someone stepped on his foot, or he was pushed, or he tripped. There were too many witnesses. They’d all know. He’d be caught, no question. He could just go to class late. It wasn’t optimal, but it was a huge step up from being shipped to some facility. But if he received another tardy, his parent’s would be notified. The following lecture wouldn’t be pretty, and the punishment would be harsh. Besides, the hallway cleared a little bit. He could probably make it.

Taking a deep breath, he started towards the mob, praying to whatever god was out there that nothing would happen. That all of his limbs would stay intact and that no body would know what he really was. Suga’s heart pounded in his ribcage, and he was sure that his chest would shatter due to the sheer force of the palpitations. He hugged his arms close to his torso as he waded through the body of disgruntled students. He needed to relax. He could do this. Nothing was going to happen if he remained calm, right? That’s how these things worked in superhero movies. The key to control was to stay calm. Hollywood never lied to him before. Well, it definitely had, but Suga decided it was best to classify those instances as stretching the truth for the time being.

His heart rate spiked as a stray elbow darted in his direction. It stopped just before it could land a blow. It would probably serve him well to hurry up and get out of the sea of bodies as soon as he could. Suga increased his speed, dodging a few stray hands along the way. He was almost in the clear. He could do it. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard.

Another body slammed into his backpack, sending him sprawling forwards. His life was over.

He braced himself for impact, except it never came. Small hands grabbed onto his jacket, righting him back into a standing position.

“Suga!”

Sugawara opened his eyes to look down at Hinata, who was still clutching his school uniform jacket. His heartbeat painfully in his chest and he could feel his pulse in his head. Panic seized his lungs, preventing him from answering his underclassman properly. He tried to put on a smile, but none of his muscles seemed to be responding to him at the moment.

“That was a close one! Good thing I was here to help you out!” Hinata’s smile faded a bit after Suga still didn’t give him any sort of response. “Suga?” He waved a hand in front of the gray haired male’s face.

He shook his head, snapping himself out of his daze forcefully. He had to get a grip. He had to get out of this hallway. “Sorry, my brain was just catching up! Thanks for that save! I’m pretty sure your reflexes have gotten faster.”

“You think so!” The underclassman’s face lit back up, all pervious hints of concern and confusion lost in the wind. “I mean I’ve been trying to get faster-“

The rest of Hinata’s words fell upon deaf ears. The hallway was much smaller than Suga has previously interpreted it. The other students were too close, and while they were gradually filing into their classrooms, it was still too much of a gamble for Suga to be around so many people at once. He had to get to his classroom, where it was less crowded. Where there was less of a chance of him being outed.

“WOOSH! Ya know?”

“Of course. I’m sorry but I really should be getting to class now, and you should too.” He playfully scolded the younger male. “I’ll see you at practice later, ok?”

“Ok, see you later!” With a blinding smile and a quick wave, Hinata bounded off to wherever his class was, leaving Suga alone. Suga dropped his own smile and sped off to his class, making sure to give the stragglers much more room to walk than any normal person would.

He only allowed himself to breathe again when he was settled safely in his seat, his bag at his feet and his notebook out on his desk. He just had to get through his half of the day. It really wouldn’t be a problem. All he had to do was sit in his seat, not cause a scene, and pay attention. The biggest issue would be taking notes. His hands pulsed in pain at the idea. Maybe he would just listen to today’s lectures. Writing could wait until tonight. Of course it would still hurt the same amount, but at least he would be able to suffer in silence and in isolation. Just the way he liked it.

The only thing Suga really had to worry about was the hallway and lunch with Daichi and Asahi. Hopefully they would all just uphold normal conversation. Of course they wouldn’t outright force him to say anything, but it would take a lot for them to just drop it. Suga prayed for a regular lunch, but whoever was up there was blatantly ignoring him today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for sticking around! It means a lot to me! I hope it didn't suck too much! Comments/critiques are always appreciated!

**Author's Note:**

> Well there's chapter 1! Again I have no idea where this is going or if people will even like it! If you somehow stumbled upon this and made it to the end, I thank you for reading! It means a lot to me and I hope you enjoyed it!


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